‘Heroes’ In Trouble: Two Producers Fired

As a red-blooded American, I’m man enough to admit when I’ve been out-voted. Majority still rules this country in which we (Americans) live, and, despite my best arguments, it seems that the overwhelming opinion is that Heroes‘ third season, “Villains”, is officially CRAP.

Well, the execs over at NBC have heard the voices of the people (while watching Heroes‘ ratings fall faster than the Dow average) and are already starting to roll heads. The first necks to feel the cut of the guillotine: co-executive producers Jesse Alexander (Lost, Alias) and Jeph Loeb.

The word is that the NBC suits were fed-up with Heroes‘ declining ratings, budget overruns (more than $4 million per episode!) and (surprise, surprise) its creative direction. The firings are sure to be causing a major stir amongst Heroes‘ cast and crew right about now, as both Loeb and Alexander were supposed to have been heavily involved with day-to-day operations on the show, working closely alongside Heroes‘ creator, Tim Kring. So far NBC has declined to comment on the decision, but we’ll see if Loeb and/or Alexander have anything to say for themselves in the coming weeks.

Wow. I tried to defend you Heroes, but it seems as though people really think you suck this season. (Even I’ll admit that those “black hole” powers that one villain had were pretty stupid.) Being fired must’ve hurt especially bad for Jeph Loeb; that man has not only been successful working on other popular pulpy dramas (Lost, Smallville), but also has deep roots in the comic book industry. If there was anybody I would’ve thought able to take a show like Heroes and turn it into a ratings magnet, it would’ve been Jeph Loeb.

Ah well, c’est la vie. Now that the guard is being changed, perhaps we’ll get back the Heroes so many of you seem to know and love. Personally, I still think that the best move for the show is going the X-Men route of having the meta-humans become feared and hated by normal humans, forcing them to go underground, feigning “normality”, yet inevitably finding themselves having to save others. But that’s just my (unpopular) opinion.

What about you? How do you feel about the Heroes shakeup? What direction do you think the show needs to take?

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jonan 6 years ago

I think heroes needs the gantz treatment. for those of you who aren’t anime nerds the gantz treatment consists of taking all the characters that youve come to love so much. and those that you hate and killing all but one or two… so older petrelli would actually die, tracy too think about it more or less restarting the show might do it some good. plus leaving the characters who have actually survived a catastrophy might be good

>>“Rising stars” … is a comic miniseries written by J. Michael Straczynski…was canned since Heroes was too similar to it.<<

Replace “Rising Stars” with “Deep Space Nine” and replace “Heroes” with Babylon 5.” Without commenting on either shows’ merits or originality, what’s wrong with some competition? And look at how many crime/investigation shows are out there…

90caliber, 4400 was interesting at first, and careened downhill in the manner you speak of. When the whole population can be given Hero type powers, that makes superpowers the new norm.

A problem with Heroes is there are precious few “normal” characters. And half the ones that appear normal are eventually exposed as having superpowers. YAWN. BTW I wouldn’t have watched any more 4400 episodes as they got carried away with the Messiah thing. Kinda like today’s newscasts.

There were dynamic emerging goals, often propelled by futurevisions. The most obvious and satisfying was “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.” It brought cohesion to most of the episodes as it played out, and the climax was outstanding.

Another more subtle goal was the expectation that the Heroes’ paths would eventually cross.

The series’ most original and horrifying character was unveiled slowly. Sylar was wrapped in layers of mystery, and each stage was “fascinating, Captain.” The mystery of who he was, what he was doing, how he did it, why he did it, and where he came from. Much of this convergence was timed perfectly for the Cheerleader incident. I remember being breathless and screaming WHAT? at the end of a show. It takes a lot to throw a plot twist that I didn’t see 100 miles away. This show pounded these twists like a jackhammer.

Timing, twists, revelation, shock and suspense…Heroes got around the boring Futurecasting by throwing twists into the payoff of visions. For instance, yes, Peter’s body was mangled at the Cheerleader’s high school. But his contact with Claire brought healing…then he gets hauled in….and has a (Angela Petrelli borrowed) dream about Sylar. I love curveballs!

One of Heroes’ best formulas also has not always paid off. This is the plot convergence. The show is most satisfying when the buildup is behind and the plot threads beautifully intersect. Unfortunately this has been better in the *middle* of the story than the painstaking laying down (read: Feudal Japan)…or what should be a balls-to-the-wall conclusion. The wrapup of the Nuclear Man threat (which is one I did predict, very early on) brought our heroes together, but in a forced and unsatisfying union.

I agree with a few here who like the most recent episodes. Too friggin bad that two seasons in a row, Kring relies on the same formula of season one. Too bad that it takes so long introducing tons of new characters, conspiracies, timelines, and (arghhhh!) incestuosities (figure it out), that no new fans can possibly climb aboard, and die-hard fans are bailing like union workers at the sound of the lunch whistle.

I thought that the Heroes brand/logo implied the importance of a solar eclipse to a generation of heroes. This seemed to be confirmed with the eclipse that happened just when Hiro traveled to ancient Japan.

Solar flares or something would help explain the apparent occasional jumps in human evolution. Reducing superpower origins to syringes and genetic manipulation (20-40 years ago???) is a bit fetched.

jc–Episodes 10 and 11 this season are titled “The Eclipse” Part 1 and 2. This will lead into an episode called “Our Father” and one simply titled “War”. I think this is about to get very interesting. (Eps 8 and 9 are supposed to be back story eps, we’ll have to deal with that).

I guess I’m in the minority. I love the show this year. People I know who watch the show are all really enjoying this season. I get on forums to read scoops and spoilers but constantly read posts about people complaining about the show. Almost every poster suffers from IDD (Intelligence Deficit Disorder) and I rarely see complaints about the plot that can’t be contributed to a lack of imagination on their part.

I think this show more than most shows has a lot of angry nerds (tech heads, internet bloggers, etc. etc.) who are fanatical about super-hero shows and think about the show way too much and over analyze every single plot detail.

I think the writers are guilty of trying too hard to please the fans. Since everyone complained (rightfully so) that last season was slow and disjointed they listened and went to the extremes this season and ramped things up. Now most of the imbeciles can’t keep up and are back to complaining.

I’ve enjoyed this season but it hasn’t been perfect. It started out with way too much time travel but has progressively gotten better and better and in my opinion is just now hitting its stride and clicking on all cylinders again. Now they go and fire some of the lead writers? Good grief!

Unlike the author of this blog, I loved the black-hole guy. I thought he had the coolest power of any of the new characters (other than Arthur) and actually showed me that no matter how invincible some of these other characters seem, they all have Achilles heals and can be threatened by another heroes powers.

I agree that this season hasn’t been perfect but it has had some really good moments. I hate when people watch a show and complain week to week about it and your thinking if you don’t like it why are you watching it. The firing of the writers was a stupid thing to do because even if the studio was not pleased with what was going on they should talked to them and fired them if still needed over the hiatus. Now you have to bring new people to carry the burden of someone elses work.

I couldn’t agree more with you on what worked… and what isn’t working. I keep watching because hero’s is like a girl I fell madly in love with… things may not be great right now… but I’m still hoping things will work out and we can find that magic again.

Sadly I find myself really angry each episode when they ignore their own rules and characters do things against who they really are (like Parkman – a mind reader being able to be fooled by a not so bright girl)… Or Peter giving his father, who pretended to be dead and is standing with a bunch of bad guys – a hug (nearly stopped watching that moment) or Peter having to “steal” Sylars ability, which he should have already absorbed in Season 1 after numerous encounters…

To me what’s really wrong is that they are forcing plot and making excuses why it could work… instead of letting the characters choices and inner conflicts drive the story. “Save the Cheerleader” was awesome and a perfect example. Claire used to be one of my fave characters – especially after how she dealt with date rape by using her ability. And her need to know who her real parents are. In season 1 characters had other interests than saving the world or stopping villains.

The twists and turns this year are fast and furious, and some are really interesting, but they aren’t leaving any time for the characters to actually deal with everything that is happening… and nobody is dealing with their personal struggles and desires. The glimpses of the future are so absurd you know they will never actually happen. And big surprise the world is going to explode. And people are going to die if they aren’t saved… yawn.

And making it so everyone can have powers… and finding continuous ways so nobody ever actually dies seems like an excuse to keep throwing unexpected twists rather then deepen personal stories that drew me in in the first place.

It’s time to actually let characters deal with the consequences of their actions and let some actually die.

And they also lost touch with the powerful voice over from Mohinder that used to infuse the show with a sense of awe. “what is the nature of the soul? Why do we dream?”

Bring back the Hatian and let him take out everybody. He could easily handle Arthur Petreli and his entire posse.

Seda, I could not agree more, perfect way to explain it, one of the biggest things is just so many characters being stupid. I found myself angry in episodes, like peter hugging his dad, or sheresh injecting himself. You are exactly right about fast and furious, its like a bad fox show, or a bad closing to a trilogy, its like fast and furious tokyo drift or xmen 3. BAM BOOM WOOSH EXPLOSION, VILLANS, EXTREME.

Give me a break, heroes need to use there brain, it seemed better/more intresting when these people tried to live normal lives, like claire, now its “Claire the bounty hunter” give me a break…

Also the show may believe it is a comic book based show but in reality its a fantasy series and needs to observe those tropes. In the best fantasies the use of magic comes with a price. If there are no limits on power then there is no dramatic tension.

That’s Heroes problems in a nut shell. No limits on power. No consequences. And the spectre of the Reset button being pushed at any moment.

All I’ve been doing is pointing out reasons as to why this goes against how intelligent people think.

To name just a few issues, there are contradictions, and misuse of powers, characters EVERYWHERE.

Please please, read my large comment above, and check the two prior heroes season 3 threads for my comments there that detail exact examples from the episodes…It’s funny how not one person on any website (including 10th wonder heroes podcast) can or will refute the points i’m making and instead try to ignore it.

There is a reason, every major media outlet and tons of viewers are picking on the show negatively.

They´ve tried to clean up the garbage second season left behind. Characters without interest and bored storylines (Old Japan, Ireland). They killed formery great villain Adam Monroe stupidilly, changed Larter´s character without explanation, and finally they dont know what to do now with Peter Petrelli.

The problem isn’t the second season. Not at all the biggest complaints people have had have nothing to do with the second season. How does turning Seresh in the The Fly fix season 2′s mistakes? How does suddenly making Peter and Sylar brothers help what season 2 left behind? How does every one suddenly dropping their character and completely changing who they are make season 2 different?

HEROES: WHERE EVERYONE IS OMNIPOTENT
EXCEPT THE WRITERS, WHO ARE IMPOTENT

Ramble Rant to follow.

This episode must be the worst TV I’ve seen for years. I would rather watch a DS9 Ferengi episode. Even one with the mother Noogie or whatever.

Two flame throwing siblings can’t roast an unarmed agent in a box car?

The segue between a train crash in flames and some personal pan pizza made milk come out my nose–and I wasn’t even drinking milk at the time.

So we get this strong suggestion that we are finally going to see Sylar’s method of absorption…I was actually excited that it looked to be something HRG would describe outloud…would have had a horrific edge to it. But he watches and tells us less than we knew from Hiro’s glimpse of Isaac, two years ago!

The entire show was the biggest “So What” I’ve ever seen. What did we see that couldn’t have been retold in one paragraph of dialogue?

The show adds and drops (but never kills) characters willy-nilly. Let me see if I can follow the time travel. First Isaac sees NYC blowing up. Then Future Hiro tells us how to prevent it. Later there’s a very sensible trip back to a “prequel” about the company. Then Hiro, for reasons still unknown, is knocked back centuries and around the globe. Then Peter is in Ireland for a while, before a flashback to how he got there. Just a minute, I need some Dramamine.

Tonight Sylar steals a power we have never seen, HRG shows that he is completely heartless, Sylar suddenly needs to see someone use their powers to hunger for them–and overlooks Elle’s powers AND manipulation for days (so much for seeing how things work).

Peter and Nathan seem to have no concept of personal space. They ought to get an apartment next to Matt and Mohinder (it’s easy if Peter time travels). Does anyone really “breath-share” with their brother like this?

i’m not surprised that heroes is going down. I actually work for Hollywood..com and there was a story on the site called Heroes Dunzo which outlined all of this. I’m surprised that the producer’s heads were the first to roll though. Turns out we’re psychic over here! lol

I am so upset with Shane for saying that “Babylon Five” IS a great show and then having to correct himself in an additional comment, noting that it WAS a great show. Is this what the readers of threads are going to have to put up with now…? I thought the first third of these comments were fine, and really got me interested in the comments on this issue. But the second third of the comments was problematic and the latter third is too full of muddled twists and hectic reversals, not at all what got me interested in these comments to begin with. We need new writers or a new vision or something, because the comments are just not thrilling me like they did at the beginning of the thread.

Everyone I know stopped watching this show when Hayden Panettiere put her little profanity laced political ad on youtube. It’s easier to watch these shows if the actors keep their politics to themselves. Just a thought.

Seriously mark ? Why should anyone give a crap ? I watch a show for the story for the characters or the talent of the actors. I couldn’t care two Sh*ts if she came on Youtube and said that I’m a douche. Dosen’t change the show one bit.

I’ve watched and enjoyed the show since the first episode Daniel. I consider entertainment a package deal. I watched the show for the overall experience and my ability to escape reality for a little while by emersing in the story. It’s just easier to buy into the roles that the actors are playing, and thus be entertained, if they are a blank slate outside of the business of acting.

It’s not that I disagree with her politics so mush as it’s that I am disappointed in her decision to interject politics in a way that makes me unable to separate her political self from her character.

Gotta say mark I find that to be very sad. She has an issue that is important to her and wants to fight for it. Yet in your opinion an actor should never fight for what they believe in like we normal people can? Personally I thought she was being annoying and I don’t really agree with her for the most part. However, I don’t care at all. She can do what ever she wants outside of the show as long as heroes is still good. Sadly though it’s not.